Shelf structure



R. G. CHESLEY SHELF STRUCTURE April 1, 1969 sheet Filed June 6, 1966[In/enter Q azkr G. CHE5LY lLsmv, 55771.5, BArcHEL u 4 k 2 o 4771-045.acme P 1969 R. G.YCHEISILEY 3,435,958 I I I SHELF STRUCTURE Filed June6,1966

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United States Patent 3,435,958 SHELF STRUCTURE Robert G. Chesley,Farmington, Mich, assignor to Chesley Industries, Inc., Farmington,Mich, a corporation of Michigan Filed June 6, 1966, Ser. No. 555,406Int. Cl. A47f 3/14, /13; A47]: 45/00 US. Cl. 211-133 Claims ABSTRACT OFTHE DISCLOSURE The basic shelf structure comprises two spaced apart sidemembers. A plurality of shelves having upright extending rear wallscooperate with the side members to pivotally lock the same together.Locking means are provided for the pivotal connections between theupright extending rear walls of the shelves and side members with thelocking means being positioned to pivotally lock each upwardly extendingrear wall to the side members with vertically spaced pivotal connectionsto provide a sturdy structure free from distortion. Clamping meanscomprising laterally extending hook-type clamps lock the front of theshelf structure together by a readily releasable clamping arrangement.The two above-mentioned locking means are the sole means locking theside members and shelves together.

The shelf structure may be converted to a modular type unit wherein theshelves and rear walls are provided in different sizes to permitback-to-back and side-to-side assembly of a single shelf structure withthe different sized shelf and back walls and common side members andcommon rear walls being utilized.

This invention relates to shelf structures for displaying retailmerchandise.

It is an object of my invention to provide an improved shelf structurefor the display of retail merchandise.

Another object of the invention is to provide a shelf structure having aknock-down construction to facilitate shipping and which may be readilyassembled without the aid of tools or equipment.

Another object of my invention is to provide a shelf structure havingspaced apart side members and a plurality of shelves having uprightextending rear walls cooperating with said side members to pivotallylock the same together in a new and improved manner to provide a sturdystructure free from distortion.

A further object of my invention is to provide a modular shelf structurein which basic components of different size may be joined together toform an integral shelf structure to provide considerable flexibility indesigning a shelf structure and also resulting in a reduction in thenumber of component parts necessary for such flexibility.

Other objects of this invention will appear in the following descriptionand appended claims, reference being had to the accompanying drawingsforming a part of this specification wherein like reference charactersdesignate corresponding parts in the several views.

In the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of the shelf structure embodying featuresof my invention;

FIGURE 2 is a fragmentary view in perspective showing the pivotconnections of those shown in FIGURE 1 at the rear with the side memberbeing pivoted away from the clamp on the front of the shelf;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary view of a shelf structure having a modifiedform of pivotal connections;

FIGURE 4 is a side elevational view of an end member forming part ofanother embodiment of the invention;

FIGURE 5 is a top plan view of a back member forming a part of theFIGURE 4 embodiment;

FIGURE 6 is a perspective view of a shelf member forming a part of theFIGURE 4 embodiment;

FIGURE 7 is a top plan view of a shelf structure as sembled from thecomponents of FIGURES 4, 5 and 6-;

FIGURE 8 is a sectional view taken substantially along the line 8-8 ofFIGURE 7 looking in the direction of the arrows; and

FIGURE 9 is a view illustrating the joinder of twO end members by asingle back member.

Before explaining the present invention in detail, it is to beunderstood that the invention is not limited in its application to thedetails of construction and arrangement of parts illustrated in theaccompanying drawings, since the invention is capable of otherembodiments and of being practiced or carried out in various ways. Also,it is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology employedherein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation.

Referring to the drawings and particularly FIGURE 1 the numeral 10designates a shelf structure having two spaced apart side members 12 and14. The side members 12 and 14 carry a plurality of shelves 16 Eachshelf 16 comprises a bottom wire wall 18 and a front wire wall 20 and anupright rear wire wall 22. Two downwardly directed hooks 24 and 26, bestshown in FIGURE 2, extend outwardly from each side of the rear wall ofthe shelf with hook '24 adjacent the top of wall 22 and hook 26 adjacentthe lower part of wall 22.

The side members 12 and 14 support the shelves 16 and each includespaced apart vertical legs 28 and 30 with a cross bar 32 connecting theupper ends of the legs 28 and 30 and a cross bar 34 connecting the lowerends of said legs. A U-shaped wire member 38 extends between verticallegs or uprights 28 and 30 of the side members of the upper partthereof. The member 38 has a pair of eyelets 40 on the end of the legsthereof which receive hooks 24 and 26 with the hook 24 being received inthe upper eyelet and the hook 26 being received in the lower eyelet topivotally lock the rear wall 20 of the uppermost shelf 16 to the sidemembers. A single resilient hook or clamp 42 is provided on the shelf oneach side thereof adjacent the front wall 20 thereof. The clamps 42 arereceived in the lower wire of the member 38 to form a completeconstruction insofar as the top shelf is involved. The two verticallyspaced pivotal connections on each end member provides a sturdyconstruction and prevents distortion.

Immediately below the top shelf 16 are four additional shelves 16 all ofwhich carry the downwardly directed hooks 24 and 26. U-shaped wiremembers having four horizontal legs extend between the vertical legs oruprights with each having eyelets 54, 56, 58 and 60..

In FIGURE 1 it will be noted that the hook 24 is received in eyelet 56and hook 26 is received in eyelet which places the shelf in itslowermost position on the lowermost horizontal wire of this particularU-shaped member 50, The clamp 42 lies on this lowermost wire. All theshelves are illustratively mounted in the same manner. If it is desiredto vary the space between one or more shelves the user may mount one ormore shelves with hooks 24 in uppermost eyelets 54 and hooks 26 ineyelets 58 so that the shelf or shelves will be mounted on the wireshaving eyelets 58 which wire is above the lowermost wires having eyelets60 with the clamp 42 wire lying on the Wires having eyelets 58.

To assemble the structure the two end members 12 and 14 are placed in aposition with the rear legs 30 spaced apart sufiiciently to receive thehooks of the shelves in the eyes on the end members. The front legs arespaced further apart to facilitate mounting of the shelves. The shelvesmay be assembled starting from the bottom and working up to the topshelf. When each shelf has its hooks positioned in the desired eyeletsthe end members are pivotally connected to the shelves to provide asturdy structure free from distortion. The fronts of the end members maythen be moved toward each other to engage the front clamps on theshelves to completely lock the shelf structure together. It will benoted that the assembly may take place without the use of tools orequipment of any kind. If it is desired to dismantle the structure orchange the position of one or more shelves all that is necessary topivot the end members as shown in FIGURE 2 to have access to the shelvesand lift them upwardly out of their pivotal connections.

In FIGURE 3 I have shown a modified form of structure 64 which includesend members 66 and 68. A shelf 70 is provided with laterally extendingdownwardly di rected hook members 72. The end members 66 and 68 carryvertically spaced apart elongated tubular members 76 for receiving thehook members 72. The hook members 72 are substantially of the same depthas the upright rear wall of the shelf 70 and the tubular members 76 aresubstantially of the same depth as the rear wall and the hook member 72.Thus the hook member 72 and the tubular members 76 serve to pivotallylock the upright rear walls to the side members with pivotal connectionsadjacent the upper and lower parts of said shelves rear walls to providea sturdy structure the same as the hooks and eyelets shown in FIGURE 1lock the structure together to provide a sturdy structure,

In the description of the present invention, the fact that the assembledunit is free from distortion has been mentioned several times. Thisfreedom from distortion results from the rear hook-and-eye engagementillustrated in both FIGURES l and 3. In FIGURE 1, a pair of verticallyspaced hook-and-eye combinations are provided at each side of eachshelf. In FIGURE 3, an elongated tubular member 76 is provided at eachshelf side to receive the elongated hook member 72. In both instancesthere is thus vertical mechanical resistance to lateral distortion.

The contrary would be true if, for example, a single hook-and-eyecombination were provided for each shelf. As will be appreciated, theresistance to distortion in such a case would be offered by what issubstantially a single point engagement. By providing a two pointengagement as in FIGURE 1 or an elongated straight line engagement as inFIGURE 3, the resistance to distortion is considerably increased. At thesame time, the unit is easily assembled because the end members 12, 14are easily pivoted to a position to receive the clamps 42 of the shelvesafter the hook-and-eye assembly at the rear of the unit is completed.Thus, even though the end members, when partially assembled with theshelves, are freely pivotable to complete the assembly, there is alsoconsiderable resistance to distortion of the unit from its box-likeconfiguration.

Referring now to FIGURES 4-9, it should be noted that the basicprinciple of the knockdown shelf structure of FIGURES 1-3 is retained ina structure having modular units of different size to permit flexibilityin designing a shelf structure to suit different needs.

The basic components of the modular units are illustrated in FIGURES 4,and 6. Referring first to FIG- URE 4, it will be noted that a sidemember 82 forms one component of the modular unit. The side member 82 issimilar to the side member previously described in connection withFIGURE 1, It consists of a pair of spaced apart vertical legs 84, 86which are connected together by U-shaped wire members 88. Each wiremember 88 has a pair of eyelets 90, 91 at the rear thereof.

Referring next to FIGURE 5, it will be noted that the wire back member92 has two spaced apart downwardly direct hooks 94, 96. The hooks 94, 96extend outwardly from each side of the back wall and are for engagementwith the eyelets 90.

Cir

Next, referring to FIGURE 6, wire shelf element 98 is illustrated. Theshelf 98 has a bottom wire wall 100 and a front wire wall 102. A pair ofdiagonal wire elements 104, 106 are provided on the underside of thebottom wall 189. Each element 104, 106 extends from the rear edge of theshelf diagonally towards one side edge thereof and terminates at theside edge short of the front wall 102. Downwardly extending hooks 108,110, 112, 114 are formed on the termination points of the elements 104,106 for engagement with, respectively, the side members 82 and rear wall92.

Referring now to FIGURE 7, the use of the component 82, 92 and 98 may beunderstood. The side members 82 are provided as a uniform size for allof the modular units. However, the back walls 92 and shelves 98 areprovided in different widths. For example, as illustrated in FIGURE 7,the shelf 98a is twice as wide as the shelves 98b. One convenient rangeof sizes is to provide the back walls and shelves in three differentsizes, namely 24- inch, 36 inch and 48 inch widths. This arrangementprovides for 8 different arrangements in constructing a shelf structure.FIGURE 7 has an arrangement wherein 48 inch shelves are assembled inback-to-back relationship with a pair of 2 4 inch shelves.

In FIGURE 7, a plurality of vertically spaced apart shelves 98a aremounted on a pair of spaced apart side members 82. In mounting theseshelves, the hooks 108a, 110a, 112a, 114a, are received on thehorizontally extending U-shaped wire members 88 of the side members 82and horizontally extending wire elements of the back members. In thepresent case, a pair of back members 92b are common to both the shelves98a and 98b.

The shorter shelves 98b are mounted in vertically spaced arrangementbetween three spaced apart side member 82. The center side member 82 iscommon to both sets of shelves 98b.

The arrangement for mounting the back walls 92b is best illustrated inFIGURES 8 and 9. As will be noted, the hooks of the left back member 92bare received in the lowermost eyelets 91 of a pair of the U-shaped wiremembers 88 while the hooks of the righthand back member 92b are receivedin the uppermost eyelets 90 of the U-shaped members. This verticalstaggering permits the back members to share the common central sidemember 82.

The adjacent side members 82 at each end of the shelf structure arelocked together by virtue of the hooks 94b. 96b extending through a pairof eyelets 90, 91 as illustrated in FIGURES 8 and 9.

Use of the modular units results in considerable flexibility inconstructing shelf structures and also in a cos saving. For example,referring to FIGURE 7, if three individual shelf structures has beenconstructed and placed together as in FIGURE 7, additional back memberswould have to have been provided for the longer shelves 98a and anadditional side member would have had to have been provided for theshorter shelf members 9812.

Having thus described by invention, I claim:

1. A shelf structure comprising two spaced apart side members, aplurality of shelves, each shelf having an upright extending rear wallcooperating with said side members to pivotally lock the same includingmeans providing pivotal connections between the upright extending rearwalls of the shelves and said side members with the means beingpositioned to piv-otally lock each upwardly extending rear wall to saidside members with at least two vertically spaced points of contact ateach pivotal connection to provide a sturdy structure free fromdistortion, and means on one of the forward portions of the side membersand shelves comprising laterally extending hooktype clamps, the other ofsaid side members and shelves having cooperating wire members inengagement therewtih locking the front of said structure together byreadily releasable clamping arrangements, said first and second namedmeans being the sole means locking said side members and shelvestogether.

2. A shelf structure as defined in claim 1 wherein the side members areconstructed of vertical legs connected at both the upper and lower endsby cross supports.

3. A shelf structure as defined in claim 1, wherein the means providingthe pivotal connections are hooks carried by one of the rear uprightportion of said shelves and side members, eyelets carried by the otherof said side members and rear upright portion of said shelves invertically spaced apart relation cooperating with said hooks.

4. A shelf structure as defined in claim 2, 'wherein the means providingthe pivotal connections include two downwardly directed hooks whichextend outwardly on each side of the rear upright wall of the shelvesand U-shaped wire members extending between the vertical legs, and theU-shaped members being provided with a pair of vertically spaced aparteyelets which receive the hooks of the shelves to pivotally lock theback wall of the shelves to the side members and single hooks positionedadjacent the front wall of the shelves with one on each side thereof andthe latter hooks being received on lower wires of the U-shaped wiremembers on the side members.

'5. A shelf structure as defined in claim 5 wherein each of the U-shapedmembers includes two horizontal cross wires having eyelets on each forreceiving the rear shelf hooks in the uppermost eyelets and the secondeyelet therebelow for receiving said latter hooks in the first eyeletsbelow the uppermost eyelets and the other of said hooks in the lowermosteyelet.

6. A shelf support as defined in claim 2 wherein said means include twovertically spaced and downward directed hooks which extend outwardly oneach side of the back of the shelves and wire members extend between thevertical legs in vertical spaced apart relation and being provided witheyelets which receive the hooks of said shelves in said eyelets topivotally lock all the shelves and side members together.

7. A shelf structure as defined in claim 2 wherein the means providingpivotal connections include vertically spaced apart elongated tubes onsaid side members and the upright extending rear walls having partsextending into said elongated tubes to pivotally lock each uprightextending rear wall with pivotal connections adjacent the upper andlower parts of said rear wall.

8. A shelf structure comprising a pair of spaced apart side members, aplurality of upright rear walls cooperating with said side members topivotally lock the same together including means providing pivotalconnections between the upright extending rear walls and said sidemembers with the means being positioned to pivotally lock each upwardlyextending rear wall to said side member, a single shelf for each of therear walls, said shelves received between the side members, each of thepivotal connections of each rear wall having at least two connectingpoints at vertically spaced intervals to provide a structure resistantto distortion, and means on one of the forward portions of the sidemembers and shelf comprising laterally extending hook-type clamps, theother of said side members and shelves having cooperating wire membersin engagement therewith locking the front of said structure together bya readily releasable clamping arrangement supporting the shelves, thepivotal and clamping arrangements being the sole means locking said sidemembers, rear walls and shelves together.

9. A shelf structure as claimed in claim 8, and further characterized inthat said rear walls are integral with the shelves.

10. A shelf structure as defined in claim 8 and further characterized inthat the shelves and rear walls are separate components, said shelvesand rear walls being provided in different sizes back-to-back andside-to-side assembly of a single shelf structure with the differentsized shelves and side members utilizing common rear walls.

11. A shelf structure comprising two spaced apart oppositely disposedside wall structures, each side wall structure comprising a pair of sidemembers in abutting relationship, an upright rear Wall structureextending between the side wall structures cooperating with said sidewall structures to pivotally lock the same together and to lock eachpair of abutting side members together including means providing pivotalconnections between the rear wall structure and said side wallstructures at the locations of abutment of the side wall members, a setof vertically spaced shelves received between each pair of oppositelydisposed side wall members, and readily releasable support meansincluding readily releasable clamp means on each of the side wallmembers, shelves, and the rear wall structure connecting the front ofsaid shelf structure together and supporting the shelves.

12. A shelf structure as claimed in claim 11, and further characterizedin that at least one set of shelves comprises at least two abuttingshelf elements, an intermediate side member between said shelf elements,readily releasable clamp means on one of said abutting shelf elementsand intermediate side member locking the front of said shelves andintermediate side member together and supporting the shelves, said rearwall structure comprising at least two abutting rear Wall elements, eachrear wall element matching one of the shelf elements, and locking meansproviding pivotal connections between said rear wall elements and theintermediate side member at the locations of abutment of the rear wallelements.

13. The shelf structure as claimed in claim 11, and furthercharacterized in that the means providing pivotal connections betweenthe rear wall structure and the side wall structures comprise verticallyspaced loops on the side wall members at the location of abutmentthereof, the loops on adjacent side wall members overlapping, andlaterally extending hook-type clamps on the rear wall structure, each ofsaid hook-type clamps being in engagement with a pair of overlappingloops to pivotally lock the side wall structures together.

14. The shelf structure as claimed in claim 13, and furthercharacterized in the provision of a plurality of spaced apart loops onthe intermediate side member at the juncture of the rear wall elements,said rear wall elements having hook-type clamps in engagement with saidloops, the clamps of one rear wall element being engaged with loopsabove the loops engaged by the other rear Wall element.

15. The shelf structure as claimed in claim 11, and furthercharacterized in that the readily releasable clamp means provided on theshelves, comprising a hook member located on each side of each shelf andhook means located on the rear of each shelf in engagement with,respectively, the side wall structures and the rear wall structure.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,120,511 6/1938 Risdon 211181 XR2,309,435 1/1943 Bitney 21 1--133 2,315,595 4/1943 Chappory 211-181 XR3,225,719 12/1965 Marschak 21l--18l XR ROY D. FRAZIER, Primary Examiner.

I. FRANKLIN FOSS, Assistant Examiner.

US. Cl. X.R.

